Tag: beginner

“Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value”.Albert Einstein

You’re fired up and itching to get started on your blogging journey. This is it; this is the career you’ve always wanted! All you have to do is sign up to WordPress and start typing…

Easy there lovely, there are a few things that need attending to first! Like you, I could not wait to delve into the blogging world. I had no idea what I was doing and was literally writing about random things, from small adventure trips around Sydney, to product reviews, to skin care tips, to general things such as new years resolutions… there was NO consistency or no planning whatsoever.

I want you to know the game before you play it. Developing a successful blog doesn’t happen overnight. You need to put in the time, patience, research and dedication for it to succeed.

Here is my top ten tips for preparing your blog before you publish it.

1. Discover Your Niche

What are you passionate about? What are you interested in? What are you good at? What do you like to do in your free time?

The key word that I want to focus on is passion. Brainstorm ideas on what you would enjoy writing about. Finding something that you are passionate about will keep you motivated and eager to come back for more.

Here are a few examples to get you thinking:

Nutrition/Diet

Recipes

Fitness

Photography

Gaming

DIY

Lifestyle

Travel

Literature/Books

Beauty

Parenting

Product Reviews

The crazy thing about blogging is that you can literally write about anything!

2. Name Your Blog

Simple and sweet wins the race. Creating a name for your blog that is simple, yet catchy will leave a lasting impression on the reader. They will be intrigued and will be more likely to remember your blogs name.

3. Create Your Business Strategy

What are your goals? What are you hoping to get out of your blogging journey? What are you willing to spend? What will be your budget?

If you want your blog to be successful, you need to be asking yourself these type of questions. You need to know what your strategy is. You need to treat your blog as a business and set long term/ short term goals, keep track of expenditure as well as income.

Creating yourself a plan will allow you to develop the essential foundations in order to allow your blog to flourish!

4. Social Media is Your Key to Success

Social Media is the gateway to the internet. It will enable your blog to receive higher levels of exposure and consequently generate more traffic to your blog.

Whether it is Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, Pinterest or YouTube, find a couple of these that work for you and that will benefit the growth of your blog.

Social media will enable you to build anticipation for your posts and will keep readers loyal and wanting more!

5. Design Your Blog!

You have your topic, you have your blog name and your business strategy. Your building blocks are all set and now it’s time to create!

There are many user-friendly hosting sites that make it easy for any beginner blogger to start their own blog. For example, there is: Blogger, Shopify, WordPress.com, Wix, and SquareSpace.

For my blogging journey, I personally have chosen to work with WordPress.com. It is incredibly easy to use and there are a tonne of tutorials online on how to navigate it.

6. About me and Contact Pages

Introduce yourself to your readers. This is an important set to help your readers know what content they can expect from you. It also offers an opportunity for you to build a relationship with the readers. They are able to get to know you a little and find ways that they can relate to you with.

Additionally, create another page that will enable readers to contact you if they have any inquiries.

6. Write Your First Post!

Here is the daunting part. Sometimes the hardest part about blogging is taking that first step. Just do it! You will feel a great sense of accomplishment once you press that publish button, trust me.

7. Increase your content

Okay, so you have your first post and you’re eager to start advertising on social media… slow down a little. Before you make this step, I would recommend creating between 5-10 posts before you do this. This will increase the chances of your readers hanging around your blog longer.

8. Photography

These days you don’t need a top of the range camera to take quality photo’s. Simply having a smart phone is good enough to take blog-quality photo’s. The photos you upload onto your blog will determine whether a reader clicks or ignores your post. Take the time to take photos that will attract readers and keep them on your blogging website.

9. Interact With Bloggers

Reach out to other bloggers who write in the same niche to you. Take the time to connect, comment and join blogging groups will provide you with a great opportunity to engage with other bloggers that can give you valuable feedback, chances of collaboration and interaction. It also offers you the chance to work with an online community that will inspire and motivate you to succeed.

10. Ask a Friend

The next stage to write a blog is have a friend or family member read and review your blog. This may appear to be a little scary, but getting a fresh perspective may allow you catch any spelling errors and improve your overall writing.

You now have the top 10 ultimate tips need to get you started on your blog! Good luck! 🙂

I’m back! After a relaxing cruise away to Moreton Island I feel energised and ready to knuckle down and deliver some handy content.

Today’s post will be about how to create a winning post for your readers. Starting off blogging can be ridiculously intimidating, especially when it comes to your first post. I remember that step and felt embarrassed to even talk about it.

It is okay to feel like this!

For some of you, writing may be a completely new hobby. If you are like me, you may feel intimidated about the writing component. How will you readers think about your writing? Will it be terrible? Will my blog fail?

I want you to ignore all these doubts and take this step-by-step approach to writing your first post. I want you to take the first leap and publish your first post!

Are you just starting out? Leave a link to your first post ❤ I would love a read!

Grab a coffee, pen and notebook and let’s get cracking on your first post ❤

1 Brainstorm

I love this phase. Grab your notepad and pen and jot down possible ideas that you could write about.

Two helpful starters:

How to… (Write a post on how to do something)

Top 5… (Everyone loves a decent list)

2 What’s your point?

Your writing needs purpose and a point.

What will you be promoting today?

What problem will you be solving?

Will your content be valuable for the readers?

Your blog will flourish if it consistently delivers valuable content that has a clear purpose.

The success of your blog is largely determined by your content and how useful it is to your readers.

3 Create a Draft

You have the foundations of your new post. Now it’s time to structure it. Check this out:

4 Avoid Waffle

Keep your writing short and sweet. Your readers are always just a click away from moving on. Keep your writing to the point by having sentences no more then 2 lines long. If you are new to writing, I would completely recommend this to begin with.

The quality of your post is not determined by how many words your write, but how you choose to use your words.

5 Space Out Your Writing

Do not overwhelm your readers with a bombardment of never ending content. I’ve seen this multiple of times and cringe. Break up your writing with paragraphs, images, quotes and even coloured text.

Allow your readers to enjoy what they are reading and encourage them to keep coming back for more!

Beginning your blog can be an intimidating process, especially if you don’t know where to start. I began my blogging journey using WordPress. For me, I found WordPress user friendly, easy to use and set up and I want to show you how I did it.